Lawmakers and legalization advocates across the country are demanding not just cannabis legalization, but remedies to address decades of demonstrably racist policing.

Fourth-generation Oakland native Tucky Blunt grew up around weed.

His grandmother used it. So did his parents and his friends.

Blunt (yes, that's his real last name) started selling to friends in the neighborhood when he was 16. He was usually careful, buying in bulk from a trusted supplier and selling to customers who'd call him to meet up.

Most cannabis-legal states don’t shield cannabis-consuming employees from anti-marijuana regulations at their office.

But a recent case involving a substitute teacher in a Colorado charter school begs the question: How can some educational institutions fire employees for legally using cannabis, while still taking cannabis industry tax revenue from the state?

The Acreage Super Bowl ad does not promote the company’s products, nor does it try to sell any sort of cannabis. Instead, it focuses on how medical marijuana can be used to treat sickness.

During this year’s Super Bowl, you can expect to see expensive and flashy ads from all the usual suspects: car companies like Kia and Audi, junk food and soda brands like Pepsi and Frito-Lay, and classic drugstore brands such as Procter & Gamble’s Olay and Colgate.

What you won’t see advertised during the big game, though, is cannabis.

Acreage Holdings, a medical cannabis company that operates in 11 states, says that last week, CBS, which broadcasts the Super Bowl, rejected an ad it had submitted to run during the game.

Another business is joining those aiming to ease the pain of the partial government shutdown for federal workers — a marijuana marketplace says it’s giving away free weed.

BudTrader.com, which describes itself as the “largest online cannabis marketplace” and has been dubbed the "Craigslist of weed," will offer free medical marijuana to government workers who can’t pay because of the shutdown.

The shutdown — which affects an estimated 800,000 federal workers and has stretched on for more than a month — stems from disagreements between President Trump and congressional Democrats over his request for more than $5 billion in funding for a border wall separating the United States and Mexico.

“They can drag this out for years and years if they want to. But we’ll take it to the Supreme Court if we have to, and we’re not going away.”

A new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives appears ready to move on federal marijuana legalization, but there’s a roadblock in the Senate.

Although a feisty new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives appears ready to move on federal marijuana legalization, a roadblock in the Senate could foreshadow a showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S.'s 50 state governors just got their annual report cards from a leading national marijuana legalization organization, and -- for the first time -- over half of them got passing grades.

The new scorecard, released on Wednesday by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), comes at a time when a growing number of governors are focusing on ending cannabis prohibition in their states.

Over the past week, for example, at least eight governors have devoted portions of their inaugural or State of the State speeches to highlighting their support for marijuana law reform.

"Most of the cannabis industry is geared toward men, both sales and advice, and cannabis can relieve many conditions that men don’t experience."

If you want to learn about cannabis, the internet is an intimidating place to start. You'll find thousands of non-accredited sources making broad claims about cannabis consumption, skin care and the healing power of CBD.

If you're lucky, you've got a friend or family member in the industry to help sort fact from fiction.

As New Jersey inches toward legalizing adult-use weed, a state university has launched a group aimed at helping lawmakers and towns grapple with the implications of marijuana legalization.

William Paterson University has established a Cannabis Institute, made up of professors and staff, to provide both scientific and economic information on marijuana, opioids and other drugs, according to the school.

“The possible legalization of marijuana in New Jersey has significant public policy, economic, and public health implications that require in-depth research and analysis,” says Richard Helldobler, president of William Paterson University.

The Texas Legislature is about to kick off its first session since three licensed marijuana dispensaries opened in the state, providing cannabis products for hundreds of patients. Now advocates are hopeful that lawmakers are ready to dramatically expand that program to thousands more Texans who stand to benefit.

Joshua Raines worried about going to his son’s choir concert in December — not because of his son, but because he himself would be sitting among throngs of people, which was sure to raise his anxieties.

Ultimately, he decided to go. But it wasn’t long before the Army veteran’s hand began shaking — a seizure warning sign.

Maryland has banned infused food from its medical cannabis program, but nutritionists and chefs like the Parkses have partnered with dispensaries around the state to hold classes demonstrating how to make edibles at home.

Will and Gwenelle Parks, who own the gourmet condiment company Saucier Willy in Baltimore County, specialize in concocting homemade sauces, syrups and seasonings using locally sourced produce.

But recently, they’ve found success with a new ingredient: cannabis.

Once medical marijuana became legal for Maryland patients last December, the husband-and-wife duo realized they could blend their kitchen skills with their medicine of choice and fill a void by teaching others how to cook with it.

Military veterans lobbying for an end to federal classification of marijuana as a lethal substance with no redeeming medicinal value may be closer to that goal than ever before, given the midterm election results.

Between the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, the forced resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and a federal lawsuit led by a 12-year-old girl with epilepsy, the cannabis prohibition drama is set to unfold on multiple fronts.

“I did a happy dance when Sessions left,” said Jose Belen, an Army veteran who uses marijuana to mitigate the post-traumatic syndrome disorder diagnosis he received following his 2003 tour of Iraq.

While the rest of society is breaking down taboos around cannabis, it’s still a difficult topic in the military.

Once a week, a handful of military veterans gather at the Seattle Vet Center to practice the art of writing and the process of healing. Some write fiction. Others reveal themselves in memoir.

We help people find tools to tell their own stories,” says Warren Etheredge, who teaches and leads the sessions. “I’ve been a teacher at every grade level for 30 years, and this is easily the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.”

A decorated Army combat medic is fighting to save lives in a different way.

As part of our Commitment 2018 coverage, we had a chance to talk to Chris Wolfenbarger about his new mission.

"That was the day I went from being a Buddhist to a Christian to be honest with you," said Wolfenbarger, a retired Missouri Army National Guard Sergeant, reflecting on the day he survived a massive suicide bomb in Afghanistan.

Though medical marijuana is legal in most states, the Department of Veterans Affairs will neither recommend nor prescribe it because of a longstanding federal law.

Charles Claybaker spent five tours in Afghanistan, kicking in doors and taking out terrorists.

But an aircraft crash in 2010 left the Army Ranger with a crushed leg, hip and spine and a traumatic brain injury.

Army doctors loaded him up with a dozen prescriptions to numb the pain and keep his PTSD in check. But Claybaker said the pills transformed him from a highly-trained fighter into a zombie for at least two hours a day.

Just want a snack? You can grab one of those as well. The kitchen will offer a full menu of pizza, pasta, artisan burgers, street tacos, fries, and other cannabis-infused meals for patients to pick up and consume on the go.

"The VA, they just throw pills at you. When I started using cannabis, it was completely different. Now I participate in my life. I'm active. I actually care. It's a complete 180 now."

It wasn't until years after she got out of the Navy that Elizabeth Bietts went to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bietts, who worked as an airplane mechanic, said she was raped 12 times during her almost seven years in the Navy, and didn't talk about it until she went to file a claim for benefits with the VA years later.

"All these emotions had been suppressed, buried deep inside. I hadn't thought about it or talked about it," Bietts, 36, of Vernon, said during a recent phone interview. "I'd learned to live with it. Thinking about it again, it was a lot."

Doctors in the veterans’ health system say the department’s lack of research has left them without much good advice to give veterans.

Some of the local growers along the coast here see it as an act of medical compassion: Donating part of their crop of high-potency medical marijuana to ailing veterans, who line up by the dozens each month in the echoing auditorium of the city’s old veterans’ hall to get a ticket they can exchange for a free bag.

One Vietnam veteran in the line said he was using marijuana-infused oil to treat pancreatic cancer.

Another said that smoking cannabis eased the pain from a recent hip replacement better than prescription pills did.

United States Veterans are two times more likely to succumb to accidental overdose, and we’re losing more than 20 of them to suicide every day. But cannabis could help.

Thirty US states and Washington DC have legalized cannabis for adult use, and the majority of Americans reportedly support legalizing cannabis nationwide.

Despite all of this, 20 million American veterans are still blocked from receiving safe, legal, and affordable access to cannabis.

Although doctors employed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs are permitted to discuss medical cannabis with their patients in states where the plant is already legal, VA docs aren’t currently able to prescribe cannabis—even in states like California and Colorado.

A former Navy SEAL from the Chicago area is leading the push to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level in an effort to give war-ravaged service members access to pot-based treatments through the Veterans Health Administration.

Nick Etten is a far cry from the stony pot activists of past generations.

The west suburban native graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland before conducting counternarcotics operations in the 90s as a member of SEAL Team 3.

After completing his service, Etten earned a masters degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and began working in the finance industry.

A Bradenton woman who says her suffering from ALS is decreased because of smokable medical marijuana gets her day in court Wednesday. She and other plaintiffs are challenging the state's ban on smokable medicine.

As lawmakers debated the rules for medical marijuana, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri was adamant.

“We don’t think there should be smokable marijuana,” Gualtieri told lawmakers in January 2017.

Across the United States — and among former professional athletes, especially — people are telling stories of how cannabis curtailed their epileptic seizures, helped manage their chronic pain, and gave them their lives back.

The bottle stared at Cullen Jenkins for two weeks untouched on his nightstand, and he stared back at it.

“I thought I was going to be high,” Jenkins says. “I thought I was going to be just tripping the same things as weed. But it wasn’t anything like that. It’s more of a mellow, calming, smooth feeling. I felt pretty good.”

Within just two months of trying Fresh Farms CBD Oil, Jenkins is already a cannabis evangelist. This past NFL season was his first out of football.

Spearheaded by younger tribal members who are eager to join the legalization movement sweeping the country, the tribe has taken steps to become the first vertically integrated Native American pot operation — growing pot on the reservation and selling it off-site.

A weathered marquee near the center of this small Native American reservation perched on the high desert plateaus of central Oregon reads "Every Day Is Another Chance," offering a sense of optimism that can be hard to find among anybody who lives here.

The once-bustling lumber mill that sliced and shipped Douglas fir throughout the Pacific Northwest closed two years ago when the machines got too old and expensive to replace. The tribe tried a casino, but it was located half an hour from the highway, and nobody came.

American Indian tribes that say they have been cut out of California’s legal marijuana market have raised the possibility of going their own way by establishing pot businesses outside the state-regulated system that is less than two months old.

The tribes floated the idea of setting up rival farms and sales shops on reservations after concluding that rules requiring them to be licensed by the state would strip them of authority over their own lands and their right to self-governance.

The possibility of the tribes breaking away from the state-run system is one more challenge for California as it attempts to transform its longstanding medicinal and illegal marijuana markets into a unified, multibillion-dollar industry.

Bros and blunts are cool, but ganja's more of a girl thing these days. With cannabis America's fastest-growing industry, and Los Angeles the capital of that industry, women are determined not to be left out.

From pot princesses to power women who love weed, a handful of L.A. ladies have taken it upon themselves to form social clubs, throw parties and host educational events to empower women in cannabis.

The movement is about providing an alternative space where women can feel comfortable, and where they don't need to compete with men, or even with one another.

The American Legion wants the federal government to focus on cannabis as potential treatment for PTSD and other ailments.

Top officials at of The American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans organization, on Friday stepped up their calls for the federal government to legitimize and invest in medical marijuana research.

In a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the Legion National Commander Denise Rohan outlined how the White House and Congress could improve the delivery of benefits to the nation’s 20 million-plus veterans. Medical cannabis was on the list.

Christine Gordon is battling the Kansas Legislature for access to medical marijuana for her 6-year-old daughter, Autumn, who has a form of epilepsy that leaves her with persistent seizures that have not responded to traditional medicines.

Gordon’s daughter, Autumn, is 6 now, but is developmentally like a 2-year-old because of the seizures that started shortly after she was born.

Autumn has a type of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome that so far has resisted all conventional medical treatments. Gordon wants Autumn to be able to try an oil derived from cannabis that, in states where it’s legal, has helped some kids have fewer seizures.

If you're only familiar with his travel show, "Rick Steves' Europe," you might not guess that the mild-mannered PBS personality is one of America's most prominent advocates for marijuana legalization.

Indeed, the affable TV host and guidebook author has made legal weed a personal crusade, personally donating hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to legalization efforts across the country, including in his home state of Washington.

But his push for legalization in the U.S. isn't rooted in a particular personal affinity for kind bud.

Rather, his stance on marijuana stems from his extensive travels overseas and the "pragmatic harm reduction" approach that many European countries take towards the drug.

CSR can boost the cannabis sector’s image and bottom line, industry leaders said during a keynote panel at the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Seed to Sale Show in Denver.

The cannabis industry is in a unique position to reshape and redefine Corporate Social Responsibility by creating a better version of so-called “corporate citizenship”– and making it the new standard in a rapidly growing sector.

Industry leaders examined how CSR, a corporation’s efforts to assess and take responsibility for its impacts on the environment and society, can boost the cannabis sector’s image and bottom line Thursday during a keynote panel at the National Cannabis Industry Association‘s Seed to Sale Show in Denver.

State regulators awarded a $1 million, three-year contract this week to a New Jersey-based company to operate a toll-free help line for patients, caregivers and doctors accessing Ohio's new medical marijuana program.

Direct Success Inc.'s Ohio subsidiary Extra Step Assurance will operate the help line from a call center in Bellefontaine. The call center opened in February 2017 and has since been operating a national toll-free medical marijuana help line.

Direct Success CEO Cheryl McDaniel said the center offers fact-based information but does not give medical or legal advice. McDaniel said the company has pharmacists on call 24/7 to answer questions about drug interactions.

Legalization advocates in 420-unfriendly states like Kansas and Oklahoma have many hurdles to overcome, but they want the outside world to know they haven’t given up the fight.

2018 could be another historic year for the cannabis legalization movement in the United States.

Nine states have implemented recreational, adult-use legalization, and at least 29 states and the District of Columbia boast some form of a legal medical marijuana program — with several more states expected to vote on legalization later this year.

But there are some parts of the country where the prospect of legalization still seems quite distant, if not highly improbable, due to a combination of regional politics and local cultural values.

Kebra Smith-Bolden of New Haven is ready. As a registered nurse, Smith-Bolden is also director of two organizations that promote cannabis business ventures: Women Grow Connecticut (facebook.com/womengrowct) and Cannabis Consultants of Connecticut (ctcannsonsulting.com). She also is CEO of CannaHealth (cannahealthct.org), a cannabis health and wellness center in New Haven.

Good music and good cannabis can really make me feel the same way," said keynote speaker Steve DeAngelo, "they both activate the brain-heart connection, they stimulate each other and put one in touch with the other.”

“Connection, connection, connection,” Steve DeAngelo stressed to the collection of 150 cannabis and music industry insiders gathered in the Colorado mountains for the inaugural Aspen High Summit.

The first-of-its-kind conference held last week at Aspen’s Limelight Hotel connected two of the legendary cannabis activist and entrepreneur’s biggest passions in life: music and cannabis.

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